Sunday, September 14, 2008

On this date in 1847, Winfield Scott captured Mexico City during the Mexican-American War.

Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786 – May 29, 1866) was a United States Army general, diplomat, and presidential candidate. Known as "Old Fuss and Feathers" and the "Grand Old Man of the Army", he served on active duty as a general longer than any other man in American history and most historians rate him the ablest American commander of his time. Over the course of his fifty-year career, he commanded forces in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Black Hawk War, the Second Seminole War, and, briefly, the American Civil War, conceiving the Union strategy known as the Anaconda Plan that would be used to defeat the Confederacy.

A national hero after the Mexican-American War, he served as military governor of Mexico City. Such was his stature that, in 1852, the United States Whig Party passed over its own incumbent President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, to nominate Scott in the United States presidential election. Scott lost to Democrat Franklin Pierce in the general election, but remained a popular national figure, receiving a brevet promotion in 1856 to the rank of lieutenant general, becoming the first American since George Washington to hold that rank.

Thank you, Wikipedia.

General Winfield Scott could be best known in a fictional sense as played by Sidney Greenstreet in "They Died With Their Boots On" in 1941. But in Toobworld, there have been several actors to play Scott which means that several of them would have to be delegated to alternate TV dimensions.

Burgess Meredith gave voice to Winfield Scott for the 1992 documentary "Lincoln", while Nigel Bennett portrayed him in the docu-drama "War Of 1812".

For the tele-movie about Abraham Lincoln with Sam Waterston as the President and Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Todd Lincoln, John Houseman appeared as the General. As there are so many portrayals of Lincoln on television, and because Ford Rainey is the official portrayal of Lincoln for Toobworld, this production based on Gore Vidal's book is to be found in one of the alternate TV dimensions.For the main Toobworld, it would probably be Stuart Randall as the face of General Winfield Scott, thanks to his appearance in an episode of 'Riverboat'. Army Sgt. Dan Phillips was trying to fill "The Quota" for new recruits in his platoon by conking them over the head as his chief tool of persuasion. Before he was able to "recruit" Enterprise crewman Phelps, General Winfield Scott apparently stepped in to halt the practice.

In this episode of 'Riverboat', Scott was played by character actor Stuart Randall.

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Just An Old Cowhand On The TiVo Grande

As the Trickster once said, "Reality is boring, that's why I change it whenever I can."
I'm just "The Man Who Viewed Too Much", and "Inner Toob" is a blog exploring and celebrating the 'reality' of an alternate universe in which everything that ever happened on TV actually takes place.
Most of my theories about the TV Universe come from thinking inside the box and thus can't be proven. But I've never been one to shy away from a tall tale.....
Remember: "The more you watch, the more you've seen!"